Guest walks out of Airbnb and wants full refund

[IgglePiggleLovesUpsey]

I've had a bit of a crap day today tbh and the icing on the cake has been having to liaise with Airbnb support - I feel I have gone over so many details regarding a guest that decided to leave early due to issues with my property and now wants full refund.- so naturally I have come here to go over it again.

Timeline

• guests confirms that she and her partner will be using property only but would like use of spare bedroom. 2 adults
• I inform guest some building work has taken place to access loft eg new staircase and loft hatch, it's not quite finished so please avoid the area. She says it's fine.

• Guest arrives, is shown round property, then mentions she will be returning and bringing 3yo. They return, order takeaway, use bathroom etc and then contact Airbnb support to complain about property and say they want to leave citing hygiene and safety as issue. They don't cancel reservation.
• Airbnb contact me, back and forth we go, I want to know what the issue is exactly and be shown photos but they aren't shared.

I call, I message etc and eventually I reach out to guest asking to clarify issues and if she has left of intending to, only then do I find out she left that night. By this point I've stayed away for 2 nights and have packed all my stuff expecting them to stay for 11 nights. I think it's cheeky for them to expect a full refund when they made use of the facilities, didn't indicate they had any issues when being shown around, cost me time and effort to prep for their arrival , lied about number of guests and never even informed anyone they had left.

Or am I unreasonable? They found one small screw on the floor...so they felt it was unsafe for the child...the one we didn't know was going to be there. Also I forgot to check behind the TV stand...there was a clean coffee lid and a light switch to the loft in the area they were asked to avoid wasn't screwed back. I wiped clean the mirrors one last time before leaving and the tissue was referred to as 'trash' left lying around and bathroom slippers suddenly counted as shoes left lying around. The only issue I accept wasn't ideal was that a cupboard - that was not for the use of the guests but had the door removed and was leaning against cupboard.

Was the bedding clean @IgglePiggleLovesUpsey?

Not an ideal guest, and they had their own faults.

But OP, that doesn't excuse you being a CF AirBnB host trying to let out a property in the midst of building work. Price and location are not an excuse.

YABU and I think you’ll have to chalk this one up to experience.

It's hardly "expecting hotel standards" to think a rental property should be clean with no unsafe electrics and broken cupboards

There's a difference between a cheap room to stay in and staying somewhere with unsafe electrics, rubbish on the floor and a broken cupboard

Does your property meet the new internal fire door regulations for holiday letting? My friend spent a fortune doing hers last year and air b and b are not excepted.

I'll never stay in an air b and b again after a poor experience. They appear to give no guidance whatsoever on the appropriate state needed - where I live there are a lot of holiday agents and they guide owners and grade property themselves, which I think helps maintain a sufficient and appropriate condition.

From our poor experience of air b and b where we sucked it up and stayed requesting only a price adjustment- I know how hard it is to find somewhere else immediately when you are on holiday and have made daily plans. I feel for them!

So this is your home but you vacate it when you get a booking?

Doesn't sound ideal at all.

We've done Airbnb and I expect a 5* place that's solely for lets, not the owners own home they vacate.

I think you need to up your game if you want to continue with this. But basically, letting out your home which is your main home isn't ideal unless you offer one room or an annexe .

Clean and safe is bare minimum OP. You should probably be glad they didn't say becuase I imagine no insurance would cover you if someone got hurt.

I stay in airbnbs a lot and I don’t stay in people’s homes because I don’t like those types of airbnbs.

I have only stayed in someone’s home on Airbnb once and it didn’t smell like it had been professionally cleaned, and I felt like I was too in amongst their things.

Some of Airbnb is other people’s homes but I think the majority are holiday lets now.

I suspect they didn’t spend two hours chilling or napping, I suspect they spent it discussing how they didn’t want to stay / deciding whether they could make it work.

Unless this was all clear in the listing, and it sounds like it wasn’t as you mention messaging them the week ahead of stay, I think this is on you. I also think you should make it clear it’s your home. In first line of text, many listings start with “this is our loved family home which we vacate for bookings” I avoid people’s homes as they generally have lots of personal stuff which my kids will get hold of. Last time I unwittingly booked a home sure enough loads of nick maks I cleared away and had to get out again. They should have booked child if child was going to stay, but you don’t know as they didn’t stay. Whilst you showed them around were all those issues apparent? I imagine they thought it was alright and if they then subsequently found the screw, tissue coffee lid, they were thinking what more detritus could be lurcking, this isn’t what I want. Personally I’d be fuming if I were them at the inconvenience of having to book somewhere new. And re cost I think of course airbnbs should be cheaper as they don’t have anywhere near the overheads of a hotel. I stay regularly in many and I think the standard is generally v clean, hotel quality mattresses, bedding, towels & a decent smart TV. Everything else can be variable.

I don't know how Airbnb reviews work, but I would have thought if you give a full refund they can't review, but maybe could for a partial.

If they do get a chance to review, I suspect it would be quite damning, all those "little" things you mentioned would give me the ick and I would simply avoid staying there. Better to take the extra hit if it keeps your score up - I like many avoid any Airbnbs with a score of less than around 4.7.

The used tissue, the random coffee lid and flip flops left out, would make me thing that the property was even more dirty than it looked. If such obvious things can be left.

YABU. Your property was not ready for guests and I'm glad they left instead of staying.

Take it as a lesson for next time and do better! 😊

This. I don't pay to sit in someone else's mess.

Why quote the entire OP? It's perfectly clear what you're referring to without it.

Safety is everyone's responsibility, OP. Unsafe conditions can and have, killed. I know it sounds dramatic, but bad situations start with small things being ignored.

It wasn't safe and you were responsible. Saying they agreed to stay does not absolve you of responsibility for securing the place appropriately.

Exposed wires is a big no no if you’re renting your property out even for short term use. You verbally stating part of the property is out of bounds doesn’t remove that. If they go through Airbnb for their refund they will likely get it and you may find yourself banned too due to the danger of this (this happened with a property we stayed at when we reported a similar issue).

The other issues were a bit careless and combined doesn’t scream clean to be honest. You compare to expectations from a hotel in one of your posts - people don’t expect bells and whistles when they do Airbnb, but they do expect cleanliness. If I saw a review mentioning the cleanliness issues you have, I’d not stay as i would have big questions about your standard of cleanliness generally.

Based on the issues with your property being unfinished though including exposed wiring, I would say your property was not in any fit state to be rented out for any period and you may find yourself at odds with Airbnb just so you’re aware.

I've always thought the real benefit of booking Airbnb is the amount of money you save from self catering, convenience of being able to wash your own clothes, privacy and extra space. Surely if you want hotel standard of fluffy slippers wrapped in plastic she would easily be paying 3x as much.

They didn't expect fluffy slippers wrapped in plastic though, did they?

They just didn't expect a tissue, a coffee lid, an unsafe light switch, a screw on the floor and someome else's manky flip-flops. And, yes, someone else's flip flops would feel manky however new they were were.

I'll be honest with you, OP. My household hygiene and tidiness standards aren't up with what is to be perceived as the MN norm but I'd not be happy to have walked into that. It just shows a basic lack of, well, everything really.

You really need to take a look at your competition. Standards are high. We book Airbnb because you usually get something better than standard holiday accommodation with a more homely feel. There was a disconnect between the guest expectations and your preparations and presentation. As a pp stated you should probably state in the listing that it's unsuitable for children. I wouldn't want the three year old of strangers staying in my home whilst I wasn't there both for my sake and their sake.

I usually book two bedroom places as they're bigger than one beds so I don't expect to be restricted to using only one bedroom. We once got a weird review from a host (implying more than the two stated guests stayed) because we used both bedrooms in a two bedroom house during a week long stay - I often don't sleep well so take myself to another room so I'm not disturbing my partner.

If a host told me there was building work going on I would probably ask to see photos to understand the extent. That electrical cover not being on properly is unsafe and you can't have guests staying there with that left like that. Nor were your cleaning standards high enough. They weren't staying with you, they were renting the whole house. You either need to remove all your possessions or lock them away somewhere.

I think for some people staying in someone's home while they are not there is fine - we did it in Paris, flat belonged to a single mum and two teenage kids which they let out when they were away over the summer. The letting advert was really clear about the set-up so we knew exactly what the deal was and we were happy with that. It's fairly easy to scroll past adverts which are someone's house. Under the initial picture of the property it will say "hosted by a business" or "hosted by Host's Name" and the reviews will usually give more information about whether it's a dedicated self-catering let or someone's house which they let out as and when.

Sorry but your place doesn’t sound in a fit state for Airbandb. The guests are wrong to bring a child without booking her in but the 2 wrongs don’t make a right. It may have taken them a few hours to realise they were unhappy and decide to leave. I’d give them a refund, complain in your review that their comms weren’t good and they brought an un booked child, and move on.

It sounds unsafe and personally I would not want to stay there.

I would not be refunding them. They should have said they were bringing a child and not pretended it was just going to be the two of them.

Why have a takeaway there and then decide they can't possibly stay? Cheeky fuckers

Maybe because they had nowhere else to go?